Vandaysia

Vandaysia (/vənˈdeɪʒə/( listen ); Dutch: Vandeisië /vanˈdɛi̯zi.jə/ ( listen) ; Vandaysian: Bandaysia /banˈdεisia/) officially the Republic of Vandaysia is an independent sovreign state located in Oceania.

With 72,853,988 estimated inhabitants It is the third largest Austronesian nation by population after Indonesia and the Philippines, and the first fully oceanian nation by population and GDP (nominal), and the second by GDP per capita (after Australia). It also is one of the largest nations in its area. Thinking of Australia as an island, Vandaysia is a fully island nation, therefore, sea and trade play a huge role in its economy, culture, geography and development.

The area where the country stands has been an important region for trade since at least the 7th century, when Srivijaya and then later Majapahit traded with China and India. Local rulers gradually absorbed foreign cultural, religious and political models from the early centuries CE, and Hindu and Buddhist kingdoms flourished. Vandaysian history has been influenced by foreign powers drawn to its natural resources. Muslim traders and Sufi scholars brought the now-dominant Islam, while European powers brought Christianity and fought one another to monopolise trade in the Spice Islands of Maluku during the Age of Discovery. Following three and a half centuries of Dutch colonialism starting from Batavia and Sangkhat, and eventually all of the archipelago including Timor and Western New Guinea, at times interrupted by Portuguese, French and British rule, Vandaysia secured its independence after World War II.

Its capital city is Sangkhat (in dutch "Zangkaat", located in the real city of Darwin, Australia) and its official languages are Dutch and Indonesian which are used by most of the population as the first language or as a lingua franca as many other less used languages exist in the country, such as Makassarese, Tok Pisin, and many many more.

Vandaysia shares land borders with Indonesia, Australia and German New Guinea and water borders with the Philippines and Solomon Islands.

Vandaysia is part of many international and peace keeping organizations, the most important ones being the United Nations, the Dutch Commonwealth and the Commonwealth of Official Nations, Vandaysia is a relatively peaceful country being neutral in most of conflicts unless the country or other strategically important nations and allies are threatened.

Etymology
Vandaysia comes from the word "Vanda" which comes from Banda Sea.

Alternative names

 * Bandaysia
 * Bandasea

Pre World War II
Centuries before Europeans arrived, the Indonesian archipelago supported various states, including commercially oriented coastal rading states and inland agrarian states (the most important were Srivijaya and Majapahit). The first Europeans to arrive were the Portuguese in 1512. Following disruption of Dutch access to spices in Europe, the first Dutch expedition set sail for the East Indies in 1595 to access spices directly from Asia. When it made a 400% profit on its return, other Dutch expeditions soon followed. Recognising the potential of the East Indies trade, the Dutch government amalgamated the competing companies into the United East India Company (Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie or VOC). The VOC was granted a charter to wage war, build fortresses, and make treaties across Asia. A capital was established in Batavia (now Jakarta), which became the centre of the VOC's Asian trading network. To their original monopolies on nutmeg, peppers, cloves and cinnamon, the company and later colonial administrations introduced non-indigenous cash crops like coffee, tea, cacao, tobacco, rubber, sugar and opium, and safeguarded their commercial interests by taking over surrounding territory.

On 1606 the Dutch explorer Willem Janszoon discovered Australia, The Netherlands then decided to expand in its northern coast, creating Sangkhat, a second trade hub to make the vast amount of land easier to manage. Smuggling, the ongoing expense of war, corruption, and mismanagement led to bankruptcy by the end of the 18th century. The company was formally dissolved in 1800 and its colonial possessions in the Malay archipelago (including much of Java, parts of Sumatra, New Guinea, Northern Australia much of Maluku, and the hinterlands of ports such as Makassar, Manado, and Kupang) were nationalised under the Dutch Republic, as the Dutch East Indies (Indonesia, owning most of the Western Malay archipelago) and Dutch Banda Sea (Bandaysia, owning the Western Malay archipelago and Northern Australia).

World War II
During World War II, the Japanese drove out the Dutch and took control of The East indies. After Japan surrendered in the war, Vandaysia and Indonesia claimed their independence on the 17th of August 1945. The proclamation was read by Yulia Intan Muljana, a woman, she also was the first president of the Vandaysian State.

The East Indies War
Soon after independence, rivalry broke out between Indonesia and Vandaysia, as the Vandaysian government and its people wanted to keep a friendly relation with the Dutch, while Indonesians really hated them and wanted relations to be completely cut, for this reason and for the many other disagreements between the two countries, war was declared on the 21st of January 1947, at first there was no clear winner, but as Indonesia had way bigger population (even if it was poorer), it ended up winning the war, Vandaysia had to give most of Sulawesi, Bali and parts of Borneo and Tenggara to Indonesia, and it was also forced to cut all relations with the Dutch.

A few years later, islamist group take over big parts of Indonesia, and even if Vandaysian people now hated Indonesia for what they have done, the country comes to help on the indonesians' side, and slowly, with a bloody war, the Islamic extremist forces were defeated, to thank Vandaysia, Indonesia gave them back the city of Makassar, in Sulawesi.

Modern Vandaysia
After the relations with Indonesia are restored, Vandaysia also restores them with the Netherlands, and massive trade with Europe starts, the government also pushes a lot to create a not corrupt country, and at first Vandaysia is a tax heaven, just like Switzerland, this boosts a lot their economy, after Vandaysia became one of the most prosperous countries in Australasia, a lot of immigrants came in from Indonesia and Philippines, this helped the country a lot, making its population rise fast, and its industry to grow wild, as the "tax-heaven like system" wasn't needed anymore, it was removed, and Vandaysia started basing its economy off industry, trade and oil only.

Geography
The country mainly spans between the Malay archipelago (parts of Lesser Sunda Islands, Sulawesi, Maluku and Southern New Guinea island) and Northern Australia. Vandaysia is one of the countries in the world with the most islands, having nearly 10,000. The longest river is the 1,050 km long Flij River, the largest lake is Lake Towuti, in Sulawesi. The highest mountain is the Puncak Jaya, being 4,884 km high.

Volcanology
Vandaysia lays on the ring of fire, therefore it has a really strong volcanic and seismic activity, mainly in the Timor and Maluku regions.

Environment
Because of the relatively low population density and lack of industry in the most isolated parts of the country, the vandaysian environment is relatively clean, although many cities have problems with pollution, most notably Makassar, Sangkhat and Moorsbei.

Fauna and flora
Vandaysia has one of the highest level of faunal biodiversity in the world including blue or/and pygmy blue whales.

Climate
Vandaysia mostly has a Tropical rainforest climate, in the north of the country and a Tropical monsoon one, in the south; In the most southern parts of the country it's possible to find a hot steppe climate, with very hot summers and nearly no rain and a temperate-subtropical hot summer climate in the southeast.

Politics
Vandaysia has been a unitary parliamentary republic since its independence, the President of the Republic is the Nation's Head of State. The President is elected for a single eight years mandate by the Parliament of Vandaysia in joint session. Vandaysia has a written democratic constitution, resulting from the work of a Constituent Assembly formed by the representatives of all the anti-fascist forces that contributed to the defeat of Nazi and Fascist forces during the war against the Japanese.

Parliament
The Vandaysian National Parliament is the national parliament of the Republic of Vandaysia. It is made of 346 seats. It is composed of the Supreme National Chamber (upper house) and the Assembly of The Regions (lower house), the first one is made of 300 elected members, the second one is made of 46 members, people in each region of the country choose the members they are going to send every 3 years, while the National Chamber members are elected nationwide every 6 years. The SNC also elects the President of the Republic, which the Assembly has to approve or not.

Foreign relations
The Ministry of Foreign Relations, The Parliament and The President are responsible for Vandaysian foreign relations.

Vandaysia is part of two international organizations: On October 2017 Vandaysia hosted the 3rd CON summit in Sangkhat.
 * Flag of CON.svg Commonwealth of Official Nations
 * DutchCommonwealthFlag.png The Kingdom of Netherlands (commonwealth)

Law enforcement
Law enforcement in Vandaysia is provided by multiple police forces, five of which are national, Vandaysian agencies. The Korps Nationale Politie (National Police Corps) is the civil national police of Vandaysia. Along with patrolling, investigative and law enforcement duties, it patrols the national highway network, and oversees the security of railways, bridges and waterways. The Marechaussee is the common name for the Nationale Marechaussee, a Gendarmerie-like military corps with police duties. They also serve as the military police for the Vandaysian Armed Forces.

Military
The Vandaysian Army, Navy, Air Force and Marechaussee (National gendarmerie force) collectively form the Vandaysian Armed Forces, under the command of the Supreme Defence Council, presided over by the President of Vandaysia. Since 2009, military service is voluntary. In 2010, the Vandaysian military had 483,202 personnel on active duty, of which 100,778 are Gendarmerie. Total Vandaysian military spending in 2010 ranked twelfth in the world, standing at $32.8 billion, equal to 1.9% of national GDP.

The Vandaysian Army is the national ground defence force, numbering 200,803 in 2010. Its main battle tank is the Leopard 2A6, it also uses the Swedish CV9035NL (Infantry fighting vehicle)

The Vandaysian Navy in 2010 had 85,200 active personnel with 125 commissioned ships and 89 aircraft. It is a blue-water navy. In modern times the Vandaysian Navy, being a member of CON, has taken part in many coalition peacekeeping operations around the world. It is a remarkably strong navy, as seafaring is strategically crucial for Vandaysia.

The Vandaysian Air Force in 2008 had a strength of 53,882 and operated 685 aircraft, including 319 combat jets and 114 helicopters. A transport capability is guaranteed by a fleet of 27 C-130Js and C-27J Spartan. Its main fighter jet is the Eurofighter Typhoon.

An autonomous corps of the military, the Marechaussee are the gendarmerie and military police of Italy, policing the military and civilian population alongside the other police forces. While the different branches of the Marechaussee report to separate ministries for each of their individual functions, the corps reports to the Ministry of Internal Affairs when maintaining public order and security.

Economy
Vandaysia is a fairly well-developed. In 2016, Vandaysia ranked in the. is equivalent to Eastern European countries. In 2016, purchasing power-adjusted gross domestic product was $ 3,242,966 million. The unemployment rate in 2017 was 6.4%. According to the, the capital city Sangkhat is an important world economic centre and among the most important ones in Oceania. The cities of Makassar and Osthaven are also relevant in the economy of the region.

The work force of Vandaysia is mostly composed of locals,, and. The government aims to provide foreign citizens with an easy citizenship. The most significant export products are and, agriculture (palm oil, spices and more) and fishing are relevant too. The country's economy is highly dependent on oil and on tourism. is 10% for most items and 1-0% for first necessity items such as most of food products and water.

Road travel
In Vandaysia there are five kinds of roads, National Highways (N), National Roads (NW), Regional Roads (RW), City Roads (SW) and Rural/Island Roads (LW/EW).

The National Highways and Roads are managed by the Vandaysian Ministry of Transport, the Regional Roads by the Regional Departments of Transport and the Rural/Island Roads by local authorities (cities).

Rail travel
The national railway network is mostly owned by Vandesisische Spoorwegen, a state owned company that also owns the national rail transport company, VS Vandarail.

Except in Australia and New Guinea, the country doesn't own any big landmass therefore trains aren't widely used and they're usually considered to be expensive and not that good.

Air travel
The biggest airport in the country is Sangkhat-Zuidhaven Intl. Airport (SGX) it is Vandair's main hub, Vandair is national vandaysian flag-carrier airline. Quite a few private airlines also exist, the most important one being AirMaluku.

Administrative divisions
Vandaysia has 8 regions.

Culture
Vandaysia has a multicultural, multilingual and multi-ethnic society. Each ethnic group has its own art, architecture and housing, cuisine, traditional dress, festivals, music, dance, tradition, ritual, myths, philosophy of life, and language. The cultural identities developed over centuries, and influenced by Indian, Arabic, Chinese, and European sources, resulting in many cultural practices being strongly influenced by a multitude of religions, including Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism, Islam and Christianity. The result is a complex and unique cultural mixture that differs from the original indigenous cultures. Vandaysia currently holds 2 items of UNESCO's Intangible Cultural Heritage, which include kris and noken.

In the south, in Australia, people have a lot of European influence, and there the native people are shrinking in number (which is condemned by many international organizations which think that Vandaysia should do more to preserve the native Australians' heritage and languages) while the north of the country, mostly made of small islands is more keen on the native traditions and more protected by the national Government.

Cuisine
Vandaysian cuisine is one of the most colorful and diverse cuisines in the world, full of intense flavour. This is because of the hundreds of different people who call Vandaysia their home and also because of foreign influence from Europe and other Australasian countries such as Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia.

The main traditional dishes in Vandaysia are: nasi goreng, gado-gado, sate, soto, spekkoek, tumpeng, batar daan (from Timor)

Australian dishes are quite popular too, especially in the southern regions, where most of people own a barbecue and use it on a regular basis.

Sport
The most popular sport in the country is football, cricket and rugby are popular in the border areas with Australia, because of the interfering TV broadcasts from the bordering country.

Although football is very popular the national team doesn't perform very well in international rankings.

Media
The media in Vandaysia is divided between state-funded/public and private, it is regulated by the National Ministry of Telecommunications and Media.

Vandaysia is known for having hosted the Linguavision Song Contest XVI.

Television
Vandaysia has two main public founded broadcasting networks, VPT (Vandeisische Publieke Televisie, in english Vandaysian Public Television) which broadcasts programs mainly in dutch language and VTFEIS (Vandaysian Television For English and Indonesian Speakers), many private broadcasting networks/channel also exist.